Editing Unwritten: System Reference Document/Running the Game (section)

===Awesome Failure===

Failure is a hard thing to make awesome, but it pays off in making interesting games. Fumbles are only dead ends if there isn’t anything interesting to be found by following up on it.

====Blame the Circumstances====

The PCs are competent people. They aren’t supposed to look like fools on a regular or even semi-regular basis. Sometimes, all it takes is the right description to make failure into something dynamic—instead of narrating that the PC just made a stupid mistake, blame the failure on something that the PC couldn’t have prevented. There’s a secondary mechanism on that lock that initially looked simple, or the contact broke his promise to show up on time, or the ancient tome is too withered to read, or a sudden seismic shift throws off your run.

That way, the PCs still look competent, even though they don’t get what they want. More importantly, shifting the blame to the circumstances gives you an opportunity to suggest a new course of action, which allows the failure to forward momentum in your story. The contact didn’t make his appointment? Where is he? Who was following him to the rendezvous? The ancient tome is withered? Maybe someone can restore it. That way, you don’t spend time dwelling on the failure and can move on to something new.

====Let the Player Do the Work====

You can also kick the question back to the players, and let them decide what the context of their own failure is. This is a great move to foster a collaborative spirit, and some players will be surprisingly eager to hose their own characters in order to further the story, especially if it means they can keep control of their own portrayal.

It’s also a great thing to do if you just plain can’t think of anything. “Okay, so, you fumbled that action by 2. So you’re working the lock, and something goes wrong. What is it?” “You missed that roll to keep your eyes peeled. What don’t you notice as you’re sneaking up to the queen’s chambers?” It’s better if the question is specific, like those examples—just saying, “Okay, tell me how you fail!” can easily stall things by putting a player on the spot unnecessarily. You want to let the player do the work, not make them.